[Perspectives] Emily Mendenhall: applying anthropological thinking to medicine

Medical anthropologist Emily Mendenhall, Professor in the Science, Technology, and International Affairs Program in the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, USA, grew up “in a small town called Okoboji, in northwest Iowa”. The story of that conservative town's reaction to public health guidance became the subject of her 2022 book, Unmasked: COVID, Community, and the Case of Okoboji. “Working across cultures in a deeply collective and collaborative way can be transformative for those involved as well as grounding in research”, says Mendenhall, whose studies encompass anthropology, medicine, public health, and psychology.